"I don't want to think about it, but it's probably 7 or 8 set-ups," he told fans just before he broke for lunch, as live blogged the final day of filming in Wellington.

"We're going to have to move like the clappers!"

Jackson, who has been filming the prequels to his Lord of the Rings films for two years, said he was blogging the day's events to give fans a sense of how much work goes into making the films.

"We're shooting scenes for Film 3 today. Stuff you will see in Dec 2014, so I'm going to try and make this honest, but spoiler free," he said at the start of the day.

"I've been lying here in pitch darkness, watching fight rehearsals over and over again ...

"I'm looking at the fights, figuring out the angles I'll need to film them today. A huge amount to do, and it needs to get done.

"Our shoot day starts at 8.30am, and is supposed to finish at 7.30pm. I suspect we'll be working late. Whenever we work a long day, I joke with the crew that I'm just softening them up for when Jim Cameron shows up in Wellington to shoot Avatar 2 and 3. Well ... it's not really a joke."

Although Jackson will be finished with his actors by the end of today, he still has a lot of post-production work to complete on the second instalment of the trilogy, The Desolation of Smaug, and the final part, There and Back Again.

Still, even with all the pressure on him, he hasn't lost his sense of humour.

"I asked the various Thorins to pose just before they headed off to lunch. One of these is Richard Armitage, and two of them are not. It's your guess ... The one in the middle is a little psycho," he wrote.

"I am looking forward to making movies with everyone the same height in the future."

Jackson first began filming Tolkien's works in October 1999, with The Lord of the Rings.

The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies have given thousands of Kiwis a start in the film industry, and a huge boost to New Zealand's tourism industry.

However, the production has always been smooth. A complicated fight over the film rights, a fallout between Jackson and the studio heads, the bankruptcy of MGM and union dispute almost stopped the book getting to the screen.